Char Siew Fried Rice & Cabbage



Hungry for fried rice?!?! Select the best char siew for the golden fried rice...

Char Siew is a common traditional ingredient use for adding taste and meaty content bites out of a boring plate of fried rice. It can be stored and kept in a fridge for at most 2 to 3 days.

Selecting good char siew for the cooking can enhance the flavour in the food, and this common ingredient will soon be transform into an admirable lead ingredient.

Selection

Char Siew:
1) Select 'fatty' Char Siew. On a fatty char siew, the outer reddish part of its texture should be softer than a non-fatty one. (A non-fatty Char Siew's meat looks tough and hard) And when cut, there is a transparent whitish layer in between the inner meat & the outer meat (reddish part). - this reveals that it belongs to the fatty Char Siew.

2)  Select Char Siew that are charbroiled instead of fried. Char siew that is charbroiled has black burnt patches on its outer reddish skin, whereas fried Char Siew has a deeper red colour than the fatties one and without those dark charcoaled-burnt black patches.

Cabbage:
Choose Beijing cabbage (smaller in size) for cooking. The China cabbage (bigger in size) is most suitable for cooking with soup or using as the main ingredient for making popiah. [Note: China cabbage is harder and will takes longer time to smother]


Recipe (Serves 5)

Preparation:
  • Store leftover rice / or prepare cooked rice a day before and store in fridge. Overnight rice tends to look and taste better as each grain of rice will be separated well (most individually), and does not result in sticky clumps, thus performance in taste will be raised.

Ingredients:
  • Rice (Uncooked - 3 1/2 plastic cups) / Overnight rice
[Note: personal selection is Pagoda Rice (皇族安培娜香米)
$13.80 - 5kgs, $24.80 - 10kgs]
[Note: cooked rice (sealed or covered) can be kept in fridge for 2-3 days]
  • Char Siew ($3)
  • Cabbage ($1 / 1 whole)
  • Eggs (5, beaten added with 1 1/2 teaspoons of light soy sauce and tiny pinch of ajinomoto)


Frying Rice
  • Oil (4 tablespoons) [Note: When frying rice, it should not be over oily]
  • Garlic (5 cloves)
  • Fine Salt (1 tablespoon)
  • Ajinomoto (1/3 teaspoon)
Frying Cabbage
  • Oil (3 tablespoons)
  • Garlic (4 cloves)
  • Fine Salt (1 teaspoon)
  • Ajinomoto (1/3 teaspoon)

Method

Prepare wok for frying rice:

1. Heat wok and oil (small heat), fry garlic until fragrance / semi-golden.

2. Add Cooked Rice into the wok and fry. (Use high heat)

3. Add eggs and stir-fried until even golden yellow. (Usually the rice will form small clumps after adding eggs, press and flatten the rice using the turner)


4. Add Char Siew.

5. Add Salt and ajinomoto. Taste.

6. The rice is ready when it is jumping/popping on the wok (by the side, or in the middle of the wok).

7. Ladled rice and place into cooker to keep warm.




Prepare wok for frying vegetables:

1. Heat oil and wok and fry garlic. (Small heat)

2. Fry vegetables until soften. (Medium Heat) Turn off fire at approx. 15 mins.

Ready to serve.

Note: The cabbage is a good complement to the fried rice.
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Best regards,

Bee Tai Bak / 'Mi Tai Mu' (米台目) Chinese Rice Noodle in Spicy Dry Version



Have we not tried before this Bee Tai Bak (米台目) at any hawker centre or coffeeshop selling fishball or minced meat noodle store?

Yes for the soupy version, but presumedly the dry version only at stores selling fried bee hoon or mixed vegetable rice (什菜饭).

So far, I've never seen or tasted the dry & spicy version. This delectable dish is what we desired in most afternoon during our lunch at home.

It's cheap & tastiness guaranteed! For about $3 for 3 persons serving, this is how its prepare.

Recipe (Serves 3)

Ingredients:

  • Bee Tai Bak ($1 or per packet)
  • Green vegetables (Xiao Bai Cai / 'Bak Choy' 小白菜) ($0.70 per pkt /$1.10 for 2 pkts) / (Or Bean sprouts)
  • Fishball ($1 per pack) / (Minced meat or, & Prawn based on personal likings)
  • Shrimps (2 tablespoons)
  • Chilli Padis (8 strips)


  • Salt (To taste)
  • Ajinomoto (added on preference)
  • Dark Soy Sauce (2 tablespoons)
  • Oil / (Pork lard with Oil) (approx. 7-8 tblespns)
  • Water (one pot)

Method


1. Pound Chilli Padis and Shrimps together until semi-fine.

2. Wash & Cut Vegetables. Heat a wok of water and boil vegetables for approx. 3 mins (Cook in hot water but not in boiling bubble form). Ladlen up vegetables and place aside. (If using bean sprouts - this step is not required)


3. Heat wok & Oil. When heated, fry the pounded Chillis & Shrimps to fragrance using small medium heat. (approx. 1-2 mins)


4. Add Bee Tai Bak and stir-fry.


6. Place in Fishballs & Vegetables to wok. (Alternatively, prawns or bean sprouts here)

7. Add Dark soy sauce to wok.


8. Lastly, sprinkle salt to taste. Add ajinomoto, if you prefer.

It doesn't matter if this dish should be only serve hot. This spicy dry Bee Tai Bak is definitely simple to prepare, less effort taken and wham....a dish prepared in mins....a something else from the usual maggi mee stuffs. Yes, there should be a tad bit of oiliness in it; as a component of its tasty factor. Try it & like it!


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Best regards,

Sweet Potato Dessert Soup



Sweet potatoes, as we have seen in many classic movies and dramas, belongs to the food for the poor. Yesterday morning, I found the truth through conversation between my grandfather and an uncle from Malaysia who is lacquering our doors.

I got to know that many people could not even afford to eat one sweet potato during wartimes. They had to hide the sweet potato they are having, find and dig a hole and bury it. Times were hard, and commodities were not easily available.

It cost about 7 or 8 cents to buy 1kg of sweet potatoes in the past, and had slowly risen to 10 cents or more, and until now it had inflated so much.

There is much historical meaning behind each kind of food, as well as knowledge into food selection and I'm still deepening to explore it.

Now, let's source for good ingredients and start boiling!

Selection

Sweet Potato:
Choose from Indonesia instead of Malaysia as it is sweeter in nature. Indonesia sweet potatoes are tastier to boil for dessert soup. The purple-coloured kind of Japanese sweet potato is best cook by steaming or baking method.

Recipe (Serve 5-6)

Ingredients:
  • (Note: Add Tapioca based on likings - 1 whole)
  • Pandan leaves ($0.40 from supermarket, requested Free when buying at vegetable store in wet market)

  • Sweet Potato - average size; approximately 2 kg in totalling of 6 or 7 pieces (About $3 supermarket price)

  • Sugar (10 tablespoons)
  • Water (2 litres)
Method

1. Wash pandan leaves thoroughly and tie a handful bunch with a single pandan leave into knots.

2. Skined the Sweet Potatoes, break or chipped it and put aside. (Note: do not cut potato into neat chunks, instead sliced an inch deep and break it away into coarse edge using a knife as shown in the picture below.) / (Peeled Tapioca if any, and cut into pieces)

3. Place knotted pandan leaves and sweet potatoes (or tapioca, if any) to boil with water in a pot at medium or high heat.

4. Remove pandan leaves after 5 minutes.
5. Mix sugar into pot.
6. Boil for 15 minutes.

Ready to serve. Enjoy!

Sweet Potato ~ Best consume on its baked or steamed own / sweet dessert soup / sweet potato porridge

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Best regards,

Salad Tuna Sandwich


A crunchy, healthy and colourful salad sandwich to brighten the start of your day...

Breakfast are optimal energy booster in the morning. It improves metabolism in the body, and is a no-no to skip even for any dieter.

Usually I prefer my deli in the morning to be light yet fulfilling. I love to have bread with different kinds of spread; like peanut butter, orange jam or kaya with butter. Often I like sipping a cuppa milo and dipping all sorts of biscuits into it, and my own preferences would be McVities Digestive Biscuits, Marie Biscuits or Oreo Cookies.

For home-cooked I will opt for porridges, and for packet food from nearby coffeeshops, I'll take breakfast like fried beehoon or vegetarian bee hoon. Some alternate times, l'll also be whipping up a continental breakfast or buying our all-time favourite american breakfast from McDonald's or BurgerKing.

I do experience cravings during some mornings for Delifrance or Subway. This is when my thoughts swerve into a state of rich taste savoring my mouth, with my favourite wrap of food in croissant or baguette.

To satisfy my tastebud with a simple and rich fulfilling one, salad tuna sandwich will be my choice. It is an express light meal and all food items are easily handy and dandy.

Note: Tuna may be substituted with chicken, prawns or any other favourite. (The amount of food included depends on personal likings)

Recipe
Ingredients:
  • Tuna
  • Cheese
  • Lettuce
  • Tomato
  • Bread
Dressing:
  • Thousand Island / or Mayonnaise with Sweet Chilli Sauce
Method

1. Lay Lettuce on the Bread.
2. Scoop Tuna and place on the Bed of Lettuce.
3. Cut Tomatoes and garnish.
4. Scatter Cheese pieces on top of the bread.
5. Top Thousand Island dressing sparsely.

Ready to serve. Enjoy!
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Best regards,

Fragrant Banana & '40-days Banana'



This is a bunch of '40-days Banana' (四十日蕉), and there's an interesting link behind its name...

There are a few varieties of this tropical fruit - Banana, such as the Red Bananas (红牙蕉), the Green Bananas (青牙蕉), the Indonesia Bananas: Green Bananas that eventually turn yellow, and the Fragrant Bananas (香-蕉): a typical type of yellow banana that is relatively shorter in length, and sweeter without acerbic taste texture.

These '40-days bananas', which are also category of Fragrant Bananas (grown from the same tree) are the first few bunches of bananas growing out of the red flower from its banana tree in a drooping manner. They are considerably shorter in length than the others fragrant bananas in the same tree, measuring at about 3 inches or lesser.

Besides being a nutritious and healthy fruit with a good content of potassium and other various vitamins and minerals, Bananas are personally my favourite topping choice for ice-cream and Banana cakes tucked great taste of mild banana scent into me too. Please check out more Banana recipes under Fruity section and do enjoy!

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Best regards,

Recipe Collections


Recipe Collections are expanding soon. Please be patient.
Thank you!

Appetizer & Snacks

Salads & Vegetables

Soup & Stew

Seafood & Fish

Poultry & Meats

Fast Food & Burgers

Rice, Noodles & Pasta
Grains, Beans & Nuts

Egg & Cheese

Sauces & Dips

Herbs & Spices

Fruits & Dessert
Bakes & Flour Read more...

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Bio

Hello There! Cookery begins when I'm at a lollipop age tendering my granny's half-cooked food in her kitchen. Inherited from her genes, I'm a natural-borne cook, which announces my first attempt to cook on my own during secondary school days at age thirteen, a foody success.

I am thankful to have my dearest grandparents to guide me through my humble culinary. Though I still have a lot more to learn from the world of cooking, I believe that effort, expectation and experiences with a creative mind and distinct sensory taste will bring all for the best in food flavor from any ingredients utilized.

Being a glutton, I love to swipe every single type of flavor on my tastebud - Sweet, Sour, Salty, Spicy and Bitter!

I'm always having daily adrenaline craves for sweet treats like chocolates, ice-creams, cheesecakes and chinese sweet dessert. My mood of the day never turns sour when I get to enjoy a cup of soursop drink or a bowl of sour soup for enjoyment. Salty food or its ingredients are my daily staple for each meal and french fries with a pinch of salt makes my day. Spicy, has been my lifetime companion since young, I'm never afraid to conquer chilli padi, tabasco or sambal belachan, and yes, I do take wasabi to go with sushi. Sadly, I never like the taste of bittergourd, bitter medicine or almost anything bitter, except for King of Fruits, Durians!

I started this blog dedicated to my newly renovated home & kitchen, which I totally adore. Instead of fantasizing about imaginery new recipe ideas while waiting for the kitchen to be fully ready, I decided to prep this food blog with the content groundwork first before it takes off together with post entries when the kitchen is steaming.

For another good reason, I wanted to consolidate all of the home-cooked food recipes into a good area, somewhere I can share & admire instead of eaten and forgotten.


Of course, my adventure will extend wildly beyond the comfort zone of my home my kitchen to places where I dig food, so I could bring more creation & addition to recipe.

As I love food and pig out like nobody's business with only gaining fats and calories do I unreluctantly opt for a low carb one, my weight is usually moving like yo-yo. I am mostly and habitually seen vacuuming all my plates and bowls leaving without traces of food or a single grain of rice - a good cultivation since young, but a big disliker of food waster, it makes me. I could even wake up in the middle of the night to finish a few bowls of porridge with side dishes, or any leftover kuehs or coconut-contented food that will turn sour and spoil over the next few hours, so that those food could be salvaged from going down the bin chute.

I have my share of this wonderful work with the universe, I hope readers who pop by could offer me their views on improvising dishes or exchanging ideas on interesting new delicacies.

Let's begin on a Gastronomic Affair with me...

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Best regards,
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